The Marlins are placing A.J. Puk on the 15-day injured list, as the left-hander is dealing with some nerve irritation in his left elbow. A corresponding move hasn’t yet been announced and it might not come until Tuesday, since Miami has an off-day on Monday. Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link) guesses that JT Chargois might replace Puk, as Chargois is completing a rehab assignment after missing just over a month with an oblique strain.
Puk’s last appearance was on May 10, and manager Skip Schumaker told the Herald’s Andre Fernandez and other reporters prior to today’s game that Puk had been dealing with a “dead arm.” The designation of nerve irritation sheds some new and concerning light on the issue, as while it could be that Puk might be back to normal after 15 days, there is no real timeline for nerve-related injuries.
It’s another troubling injury setback for Puk, as Tommy John surgery cost him all of the 2018 season as a prospect in the Athletics’ farm system, and he didn’t pitch in 2020 due to shoulder problems that eventually required a surgery. Puk carried a lot of promise as a starter during his way up the minor league ladder, yet his health problems led the A’s to use him only as a reliever. In his first full MLB season, Puk looked mostly excellent in posting a 3.12 ERA over 66 1/3 relief innings for the A’s in 2022.
That good form has continued into Puk’s first year in Miami, as the Marlins dealt JJ Bleday (another former top prospect) to Oakland for Puk back in February. Though the Marlins considered using Puk as a starter, they instead opted to use him as their primary closer, with strong results. Puk has a 3.07 ERA and a wealth of impressive secondary metrics over 14 2/3 innings with the Marlins, including a 29.2% strikeout rate and 4.6% walk rate that are both well above the league average. Batters haven’t been able to make much hard contact against Puk’s offerings, as his 2.4% barrel rate is among the best in MLB.
Dylan Floro got the save in today’s 3-1 win over the Reds, and he is likely the favorite for ninth-inning work in Puk’s absence given how Floro finished the 2020 season as Miami’s closer. The Marlins could also take a situational approach to save situations, with any of Floro, Andrew Nardi, Huascar Brazoban, Tanner Scott, or Matt Barnes getting a crack at closer duties based on in-game scenarios.
It’s been a tough couple of days health-wise for the Marlins, as while Garrett Cooper returned from the 10-day IL today, Miami has lost both Jesus Sanchez and now Puk to the injured list. Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s status is also to be determined, as Schumaker said the center fielder will visit a specialist about a case of turf toe. Chisholm suffered the injury in yesterday’s game after a collision with the outfield wall in pursuit of a fly ball.
Trading Bleday for a relief pitcher while not being a contender was certainly a choice
Considering he’s 25 and has a career OPS+ of 84, it was an extreme easy choice to make actually
That career you’re referring to is a full 277 plate appearances. I’d say the jury’s still out on this one.
Bleday has played exactly 11 games and you come in here tripping over yourself to spit out some Kim Ng hate, was also certainly a choice.
She’s OK, not good or bad. No GM is winning with that disaster of ownership.
Ng has had hits and misses, but has not made life for herself easier either considering some of the poor decisions in transactions and inactivity stretches during her self-promo opportunities.
Jury is out on this ownership since Jeter is out.
FYI – Loria has not been our owner for several years, which people who post to bash the ownership keep using the same assumptions that were part of Loria’s regime.
Why is Ng under a microscope no other comparative (in terms of experience) GM is under?
“Ng has had hits and misses, but has not made life for herself easier either considering some of the poor decisions in transactions and inactivity stretches during her self-promo opportunities.”
What does this even mean? No other GM does this.
@StephCurryRetiresWith8Rings
It is in reference to some of the self-promo stuff Ng has done while talking a big game. Marlins fans for the most part were hoping she’d work out, and we were thrilled to have anyone other than Mike “Yes Man” Hill. We prepared to let her do the role.
Now the problems were self-inflicted when it comes to criticism of her by our fan base and some of the local media. I’ll go over some as follows:
Her first thing walking through the door after the 2020 season was saying that she’d fix the bullpen. Just about every guy she brought in failed as we saw what happened with the Marlins bullpen the last two years. Seriously, they couldn’t find a lead that they couldn’t blow, especially less than 5 runs. She had multiple failed transactions there that led to the last two seasons…all the while, refusing to add a legit Closer. She also stuck with guys that had proven to be career middle relievers were not able to handle high leverage situations.
The second thing that was also done with her when she entered the doors, was she shut down the Marlins intent to give Brian Anderson and extension. Obviously that was a plus for her, but she was more the benefactor of Anderson getting hurt and not being healthy since. We’ll never know if she was right because no one can predict injuries or how they affect a player afterward.
Oh, and there was a lovely decision to let Harold Ramirez go while holding onto Lewis Brinson, Monte Harrison, and Magneuris Sierra…all of which she had to drop later on.
She had other moves that were hits and misses. Obviously one of her hits was trading Yimi Garcia for Brian De La Cruz. Good move on her part.
One of her misses was, after the bullpen failed miserably in 2021, she stood her ground and refused to get a Closer in the 2021-22 offseason. She brought in guys like Tanner Scott, and figured others like Floro could handle high leverage situations too. None of the bullpen guys could hold leads in 2022.
Also in the 2021-22 offseason, along with neglecting to bring in a legit Closer, she spent the budget stupidly with signing both Avi Garcia and Jorge Soler. The Marlins already had young OFs that they could work with. They only needed one corner OF. And they didn’t need a DH either. As a result, she had defensive liability Soler in LF and threw Jesus Sanchez off in so many ways with moving him to CF, which further hurt our OF defense. She had De La Cruz, who she originally sent down for Opening Day, but had to bring back. This was done after De La Cruz showed he should have had a roster spot in the very least, and could’ve been a starter. And also adding in that he is passable as a CF far more than Sanchez. The part that Garcia has not showed up to Miami has made this gaffe even worse.
Then, after it was clear early in 2022 that the Marlins would be sellers at the 2022 Trade Deadline, Ng talked a big game about all of the moves she would do, and give the young players chances. The deadline came and went with her only pulling off one significant move – getting rid of her mistake, Anthony Bass whose departure was a no-brainer and moment of glee for us Marlins fans and our local media. She did not trade Aguilar, Wendle, Berti, Cooper, Okert, Rojas, etc. pieces that were gaining interest. Since then, all diminished in value. And, after it was clear that she had a logjam at 1B/DH to where she couldn’t clear the road to see what Lewin Diaz could do, after she didn’t trade away Aguilar for anything, she releases Aguiilar for nothing. The Trade Deadline failure on her part was the beginning of vocal criticism from the fan base and some of the local media started, and got louder after the Aguilar release weeks after he wasn’t traded. Her response was her next big talk moment that would bite her later on. She started talking about all the moves that would come at the Winter Meetings and offseason.
Now the 2022 Winter Meetings. After she hyped up all the moves she would be doing, she showed up and did nothing. And to make things worse, she did what was already getting old to the fan base and some of the local media. She did all of her self-promo stuff while ignoring her job as Marlins GM. She started with her speech at the opening ceremony for the Winter Meetings. She then casted a no-brainer vote for Fred McGriff to the Hall. She did interviews with MLB Network and other media to talk about all the moves she was going to make – even while she wasn’t making them because she was doing interviews instead of spending time in the Marlins’ War Room. We heard the half-ash efforts to make signings that went nowhere fast. She then left with nothing done, and than followed up with another big talk moment about all the moves she would make soon.
Then there was the rest of the offseason. She did nothing for most of the winter, and the criticism was getting louder from the fan base and local media. Then all of the sudden, when MLB was weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting, and Ng knowing that she would have to answer fan questions at Marlins FanFest, she did a scramble to make the moves she did. She jumped on Cueto, Segura, Barnes, Puk and Arraez in a short period, just before FanFest. Now granted, of these moves, the Arraez, Puk and Barnes moves have helped the Marlins well, so those are hits on her part. Cueto and Segura will have to wait for judgement.
Oh, and also from her 2022-23 offseason was the move that triggered some criticism/questioning from the fan base and some of the media. It was when Brian Anderson was non-tendered, but Cooper was kept. No one really debates too much about the Anderson non-tender, but the fact that Cooper was kept made no sense to the vast majority of the fan base. The reason is that there has been debate within the fan base, with a huge portion of the fans base (and local media) feeling that moving on from Cooper is long overdue, while there is a small portion of the fan base that values him. In fact, there are some local media figures that have provided the anti-Cooper portion of the fan base with thoughts that many have adopted. Cooper is considered by many as the posterboy for the Marlins acceptance of mediocrity. The opinions of him having job security with the organization has been a talking point because no one, both critiques and even supporters, can come up with a valid reason as to why the Marlins have been committed to Cooper despite so many injuries and never being the type of player that a team would stick with through all of it. Seriously, he’s not a franchise player, which is the type of player that would have this type of commitment and job security.
This is what is there with Ng. All the people that keep trying to make it like Ng’s criticism is about something more, are just lost. And if your best defense of some is that they are not the only person bad at their job, that’s not a good defense. And it doesn’t justify her not being bashed or keeping her job. I want the Marlins to win. I don’t care what demographics the GM checks off if they can get the job done with building a winning team. I’m Afro-Latino and I was one of Mike “Yes Man” Hill’s biggest bashers. And I will address my opinions about Ng as well, and will support them with things like I have stated above. What next? If I state my opinion that the best GM the Marlins ever had was Dave Dombrowski, am I going to get accused of something?
tl;dr
Fine. I’ll note this the next time I see you trying to comment on someone criticizing Kim Ng. I’m of the school that, if you can’t read the facts or someone’s point of view, you can’t have a comment.
Puk was not a huge get to me, but getting anything for Bleday was masterful.
And anything that stabilized the bullpen was important, as seen in the reversal of fortunes in handing leads to the bullpen this year versus the last two.
Whew!! It’s just the elbow. I was afraid it was lower on the arm and Puk was gonna have to take a wrist shot.
They have both played well for their new clubs. Marlins seem to have a talent for win win trades with young guys (i.e. Chisholm and Gallen).
Bleday has only played 11 games for Oakland. That’s nowhere near enough to be analyzing anything.
If Miami fails to win the division or even qualify for the playoffs you can expect Skip Schumarker to get the axe. He has lost the clubhouse and expectations in Miami were nothing short of the World Series.
Might have to cancel the parade:(
Where are you idiots getting this stuff?
What the Puk??
Wolfgang
The Florida Panthers have been doing well with their puck and the Marlins had been with their Puk.
Big bummer, hope he’s good. He was dominant in April and then starting getting touched up; makes you wonder how long he’s been feeling it
This can hurt a lot. Puk improved our bullpen vastly by stabilizing the Closer role, which has pushed other guys into lesser roles. I hope Puk isn’t out long because the thought of Dylan Floro or Tanner Scott as the Closer is not going to bring comfort as we’ve seen those horror shows before.
And here we go…now all the injuries are starting to pile up, and we’ve seen the ineffectiveness from some guys. How much “depth” do the Marlins exactly have, again?